Review: 'Heavy Shoes' The Cold Stares

The Cold Stares

By Mike O’Cull

Dramatic Southern Gothic rock and roll duo The Cold Stares comes off smart, tough, and honest on their new album Heavy Shoes. Set to drop August 13th, 2021 on Mascot Records, the record is a simmering cauldron of fuzz tone-laden blues, rock, desert music, and garage vibes united by a literary approach to lyric writing that carves somber, multifaceted narratives into the band’s crunching grooves.

Guitarist/vocalist Chris Tapp and drummer Brian Mullins use a no-expectations creative method to make their music that allows space for anything real and runs on radical authenticity. “I’m writing from the point (of view) of Edgar Allan Poe and William Faulkner. It needs to have weight to it,” Tapp says. “There’s not really anything that bothers me to talk about. When you don’t allow yourself to be human and say what’s happened to you, then you make other people that are going through tough sh*t think that they’re alone.”

As The Cold Stares, Tapp and Mullins have become hardcore road dogs, wearing out the USA’s highway system on tour, appearing with the likes of Rival Sons, Spoon, Grand Funk Railroad and Thievery Corp. Heavy Shoes is their fifth album release. Their songs have been streamed over 20 million times and have been featured on TV and in games including placements with ESPN, X-Games, Monster Energy, TNT’s Animal Kingdom, Dodge Motors, and the mega-hit game CyberPunk 2077. Despite all this success, however, much real-life darkness has crept into band life. The pair have survived divorces, cancer, and Tapp’s own deep family trauma. These experiences are what drive The Cold Stares’ unflinching writing style and makes this new set the heaviest effort of the duo’s career. Mixed by Mark Needham (The Killers) and mastered by Andy Vandette (Beastie Boys/Smashing Pumpkins), the record is all about impact, emotion, and what to do next.

The album wastes no time and jumps in with its title track “Heavy Shoes.” It’s a mighty gem built on a Sabbath-worthy riff that will blow out the windows of any garage in the world. It has a brutal immediacy that only gets stronger when topped with Tapp’s expressive vocals that deal with toxic relationships. The combination will knock the wind out of you and leave you desperately scrambling around to learn the name of the band and make this record your own. Really.

“40 Dead Men” is a blasting doom/desert jam that speaks in the voice of an anonymous soldier who refuses to fight anymore. The stark horror of the lyrics is supported and expanded by Tapp’s intense guitar work and Mullins’ ferocious drumming. They both bring it old-school on this one and clearly prove how much can still be done with fuzz boxes, drums, and vocals. “Hard Times” is the first single to come from Heavy Shoes and describes the kind of life events that often break people. Tapp’s vocals are a painful wail of worry and bad luck that connect directly to the heart of the blues but present in a Zeppelin/Sabbath way that’s invigorating and true. Call it dystopian blues/rock or simply life in the 21st Century if you need a label for it. You get the feeling from it that these riffs and words could unite us all if given the proper chance.

“In The Night Time” is a moody, blues-noir masterpiece with a concrete soul and a back-alley attitude that’ll put you on edge and keep you there. Tapp is shadowy and unsettling on the microphone and his guitar and Mullins’ drums grind out a relentless beat that vibes like being out way too late in a booze-soaked-and-brawling part of town. In other words, it makes you feel fully alive in a way you could probably use. Don’t miss quality deep cuts like “Save You From You” and “Election Blues” either, if you know what’s good. The Cold Stares are a fantastic outfit with a street-level spirit we can all identify with. Don’t let this record slip by; it’ll change your life.

Listen to “Prosecution Blues”